Makuzu's History

The Miyagawa family traces its origins to Miyagawa Kohei Masakazu, who left Miyagawa Village in Sakata District, Omi Province (present-day Miyaji-cho, Nagahama City, Shiga Prefecture) for Kyoto during the early Edo period, specifically the Jōkyō era (1684–1687). He established his residence near the gates of Chion-in Temple and began trading ceramic materials.
The family later split into two branches: the eldest son, Jihei, and the second son, Chobei, each operating a pottery under the trade name “Rakoya.” From the fifth generation of the Chobei family, Miyakawa Chosaku (1797–1860), a master craftsman representing Kyoto ware in the late Edo period, was born. He opened a pottery in Makuzugahara (present-day Maruyama Park) in Kyoto's Higashiyama district and began calling his works Makuzu ware. His son, the first-generation Kōzan, moved to Yokohama to continue his pottery work. He exhibited at overseas expositions, spreading the name Makuzu WareMakuzu Ware throughout the world.
The Miyagawa main family line, the Jihei branch, which continued in Kyoto, reached its sixth generation after Kohei, who took the name Kōsai. 1934, the fourth-generation Eiyū Kōsai, along with the Chōbei branch that had moved to Yokohama, adopted the name Makuzu and began producing authentic tea ceremony utensils.
The current head is the seventh-generation Miyagawa Kōsai.

Repair Workshop “Rakuya”

Repair Workshop “Rakuya”

Yūkan's eldest son, Yūō Jibei Masashige, relocated from the Chion-in temple precincts to Gojōzaka, near the present-day Wakamiya Hachiman Shrine, later adopting the name Chawan-ya Jibei. His son, Kan'ō Jibei Masamitsu, established a new pottery for yakitsugi. “Yakitsugi” (焼継ぎ) is a technique for bonding broken pottery using low-fired glaze. In an era when ceramics were costly, this method was more affordable than using lacquer for repairs and thus in demand. Kan'ō is said to have operated under the name “Rakuyā” (楽屋), conducting business on a large scale. The sign for the yakitsugi workshop pictured was made of pottery using yakitsugi techniques and hung under the eaves. The reason it was named “Rakuyo” is thought to be because the character “楽” (raku) referred not to the Raku ware of today, but to pottery itself. At that time, high-temperature climbing kilns like those of today were rare even in the major city of Kyoto, and low-temperature Raku ware was apparently common.
Following Kan'ō, the pottery was continued by Jitsūō and Shin'ō. Shin'ō's son became Akatsuki Kōsai, the first Kōsai. Akatsuki Kōsai began producing Kyoto ware in earnest partly because climbing kilns were constructed even in Kyoto, enabling mass production of ceramics, which reduced demand for kiln-sharing. Miyagawa Chōzō's box inscription states, “Made by Chōzō of the Raku family, potter at Higashiyama Makuzahara,” meaning “Made by Chōzō, a potter working in Makuzahara, of the Raku family.”

Miyagawa Jihei Kosai Family

Senkkon Kôsai1819 - 1865

Senkkon Kôsai

The first-generation Kōsai was the fourth in line from Yūkan Miyagawa Kohei Masaichi’s eldest son, Yūkan Jihei Masashige. He was born as the eldest son of Jihei Harufusa, and in addition to the family’s existing pottery for repairing ceramics, he newly established the production of ceramics as the family trade.

Since the generation of Kanō, the Miyagawa family had ties with the court noble Nakayama Aichika (1741–1814), Associate Grand Minister of the Imperial Guards. Sekkon Kōsai likewise received patronage from prominent court families, including Aichika’s descendant Nakayama Tadayoshi (1809–1888), his son Tadaai (1832–1882), as well as Associate Grand Minister Ayanokōji Arinaga (1791–1881). He was also granted the honor of demonstrating his rokuro (wheel-throwing) technique before Matsudaira Katamori (1836–1893), lord of the Aizu domain and Kyoto Shugoshoku. On that occasion he received the “Jussui Goseki” seal*, along with a haori bearing the hollyhock crest worn by the lord, a wakizashi, and a tall paper lantern also decorated with the hollyhock crest.

Many of the first-generation Kōsai’s works imitate Chinese styles such as cobalt-blue underglaze and qinghua, and he produced numerous Sencha utensils in line with the literati tastes then in vogue. His painting style is distinguished by powerful brush lines and richly applied gosu cobalt pigment.

He employed various inscriptions including “Kōsai Seisei,” “Rakutō Tōkōsai Seisei,” and “Dai Nippon Kōsai Sei.” During the late Edo to early Meiji period, inscriptions beginning with “Dai Nippon…” were common, modeled after Chinese marks such as “Made in the Chenghua period of the Great Ming” or “Made in the Qianlong period of the Great Qing,” and intended for overseas markets. Indeed, many of first-generation Kōsai’s works—including large vases and ceramic boxes—found their way abroad, and numerous examples are held today in the National Galleries of Scotland (United Kingdom).

*The “Jussui Goseki” seal also appears on works and on box inscriptions. Successive generations of the Kōsai family have continued to use it as an ornamental seal on fabrics and storage boxes. The phrase originates from a line in Du Fu’s poem “Buffoonery: Singing of Director Wang’s Painting of Landscape”:
“Ten days to paint one stream, five days to paint one stone.”

Zenou Kôsai II1846 - 1922

Zenou Kôsai II

His given name was Kumajirō. Born as the eldest son of Nakamura Shichiemon, a firewood and charcoal merchant, he was adopted at a young age by his maternal uncle, the first-generation Miyagawa Kōsai, after his father’s early passing. He began his apprenticeship under Miyagawa Chōzō of Makuzugahara, assisting at the Chōzō pottery alongside Chōhei, Yotarō, and Toranosuke (later the first-generation Kōzan). When Chōzō died in 1860, he returned to the household of his adoptive father, Miyagawa Kōsai, and engaged in the family business.

In 1865, upon the death of the first-generation Kōsai, he succeeded to the name and became the second-generation Kōsai. During the height of the Sencha culture of the time, he became a disciple of the tea master Baijuken Baisa Tōgyūō (1791–1879). Among his fellow disciples were the third-generation Kiyomizu Rokubei (1820–1883) and the second-generation Seifu Yohei (1845–1878). Through the world of Sencha, he formed a deep friendship with the literati painter Tomioka Tessai (1837–1924). Numerous collaborative works survive, including sets of Sencha utensils jointly created with Tessai, noren curtains, paintings, ceramic seals carved by Miyagawa Zen’ō, and letters addressed to Kōsai.

He also maintained ties with the painter Suga Tatehiko (1878–1968), and the ceramic plaque of a treasure ship displayed in our family’s entrance hall is decorated with his painting. In 1911, for the 650th memorial of Shinran at Nishi Honganji Temple, he was commissioned to reproduce the temple treasure known as the “Ichimonji Goki” tea bowl.

At that time, the Miyagawa family owned a climbing kiln on Gojōzaka, where he produced a wide variety of works, including large candlestands in the Kenzan manner and elegant porcelain Sencha teapots decorated with gold and silver overglaze.

He retired in 1912, assuming the name Jihei, the hereditary name of the lineage, and passed away in 1922.

Eiyo Kōsai IV1897 - 1987

Eiyo Kōsai IV

His given name was Kingo, and he was born as the second son of the second-generation Zenou Kōsai.
After graduating from Rokuhara Elementary School, he became a live-in apprentice under Harumura Shōu, a renowned master of the potter’s wheel and disciple of the fifth-generation Takahashi Dōhachi (1869–1914). He also entered the training program attached to the Kyoto Municipal Ceramic Research Institute*. Among his contemporaries were Kusube Yaichi (1897–1984), Itō Suiko (1894–1980), and Kawai Einosuke (1893–1962).

In 1918, upon the death of his elder brother, the third-generation Kouyo Kōsai, he succeeded to the title as the fourth-generation Kōsai. He created Sencha utensils and tableware for long-standing patrons from the Zenou Kōsai era, including the Osaka Sencha master Tsukuda Issa (Shōgyoku, 1882–1967), Ogawa Kōraku, and the Nishi Honganji Temple. He also produced Tenmoku tea bowls for major memorial services at Daitoku-ji and Myōshin-ji, serving as an official supplier to these temples.

In 1929, through the introduction of Doi of Togano’o Kōzan-ji Temple, he entered the tutelage of Hikita Mutekisai (1884–1946), head of the Omotesenke Hankōan school. He devoted himself to creating tea utensils and subsequently received personally inscribed box certificates from the master. In 1930, he was accepted for the first time into the Imperial Art Exhibition (now Nitten) and thereafter exhibited in numerous shows.

Beginning in 1934, he was encouraged by many to adopt the name Makuzu jointly with the Miyagawa Kōzan Pottery in Yokohama as a “brother pottery.” While the Makuzu Miyagawa Kōzan studio produced decorative art in Yokohama, this act expressed a commitment to continue the artistic lineage of Miyagawa Chōzō in Kyoto.

In 1937, he created the “Ninsei-style Incense Container with Openwork Shippo and Scale Motif and Cranes,” which was favored by the 13th-generation Omotesenke master, Sokuchūsai (1901–1979). For the 350th memorial of Sen no Rikyū in 1940, he produced the “Rikyū Zukin Food Container,” which was accepted as a preferred item by Hikita Mutekisai. Later, in 1964, the 14th-generation Urasenke master Tantansai (1893–1964) selected his “Five Seasonal Festivals Mizusashi” as a favored piece. Furthermore, Mujaku Kōji Senke’s 13th-generation master, Yurinsai (1913–1999), chose his “Kichijō-grass Motif Buriburi Incense Container” in celebration of the opening of the Tokyo Dōjō. Since then, many works have been adopted as favored utensils by all three Senke families.

In 1964, upon the opening of the Gojō Bypass, he relocated from Higashiyama Gojō to Higashiyama Umamachi, building two tea rooms, Ryūgin and Shōkokuken. He retired in 1972, assuming the hereditary name Jihei, and passed away in 1987.

*Now the Kyoto Municipal Institute of Industrial Technology and Culture, Ceramics Course.

Kanyo Kōsai V1922 - 2016

Kanyo Kōsai V

His given name was Miekichi. Born in Asakusa, Tokyo, he was the eldest son of Sugimoto Shōtarō.
During the Tokyo air raids, both of his parents were killed. After returning from military service in 1945, he married Mitsu, the eldest daughter of the fourth-generation Eikyo Kōsai—also a distant relative—and entered the Miyagawa family. After completing his training at the Kyoto National Ceramic Research Institute, he began his ceramic career under his father-in-law, Eiyo Kōsai.

In 1946, he began studying the tea ceremony under the Omotesenke master Hisada Mutekisai of Hanshōan. In 1972, he succeeded to the name of the fifth-generation Kōsai. Following the fourth generation, he focused on creating tea utensils, and his works were highly favored by numerous grand masters, including the 13th Omotesenke master Sokūchūsai, the 14th Omotesenke master Jimyōsai, the 15th Urasenke master Hōunsai, the 13th Mushakōjisenke master Yurinsai, the 14th Mushakōjisenke master Futetsusai, and the Omotesenke Hisada Jingyūsai (1925–2010), who bestowed both patronage and inscriptions on his works.

In 1988, he published Makuzu: The Works and Genealogy of the Late-Edo Potter Makuzu Chōzō through the Mainichi Newspapers, documenting the history of the Makuzu Miyagawa family and the development of works centered on Chōzō.

He retired in 2002, assuming the traditional retirement name Jihei, and passed away in 2016.

Kōsai VI (currently Miyagawa Jihei)1944-

Kōsai VI (currently Miyagawa Jihei)

Born in Kyoto in 1944. After graduating from the Department of Sculpture at Tokyo Zokei University in 1970, he entered the Makuzu Pottery in 1976 and thereafter worked in the family studio under the fifth-generation Miyagawa Kōsai. He succeeded to the title of the sixth-generation Miyagawa Kōsai in 2002.
He received the Makuzu seal from Takada Meikō Rōshi of Ryūshō-ji, the monks’ hall of Daitoku-ji, and uses this seal on his works.

He has held numerous solo exhibitions, lectures, and tea gatherings both in Japan and abroad.
In 2024, he retired, passing the family headship to his son Shinichi, and assumed the traditional retirement name Jihei.

Miyagawa Chobei Kozan Family